The last week of school is usually a crazy time for teachers as we’re trying to keep everything together. I’ve had an incredible last week. I have found that if I put more of myself in my classes, show them who I am, what I’m interested in, they really respond to that. In turn, they open up more and we’re able to talk about stuff like Katy Perry, Eminem or the fact that only 3 of my 150 kids knew who Arcade Fire were. We also talk about movies, a lot. I use clips of movies for examples in my Speech/Communication Applications course.

When talking about interpersonal communication I show a scene from “Starsky and Hutch.” When I talk about levels of communication, I show scenes from “Mean Girls” that always get laughs, especially the scene where the girl is talking and the guy yells out, “She doesn’t even go here.” When talking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I show clips from “Lost” to show the different levels and when I talk about self-actualization, I show scenes from “Groundhog Day” and how Phil is trying to become the best version of himself. I love movies and a way for me to show them concrete examples can be found in films.

I’ve had some incredible classes this semester. Several people compared our class to “The Breakfast Club” because we have so much diversity in the room. Does this mean I’m Principal Vernon? Maybe I’m Carl the janitor. That’s probably better than Emilio Estevez’s father?

On Friday night, I started watching the Cameron Crowe classic “Almost Famous.” I got to that famous bus scene sequence with “Tiny Dancer.”

“That’s us,” I thought. I really was thinking of one class who was just above and beyond but the more I thought about it, it was about all of my classes.

I was able to find a website that had the scene that wasn’t blocked by the school’s network which is really unpredictable. Education websites are easily blocked for some reason. I wrote a speech setting up the movie and setting up the scene. How William is in high school getting to cover an emerging rock band. How Russell is full of himself thinks he’s better than everyone else and strays off to a party. When he gets back on the bus, everyone looks at him with resentment.

The whole bus ride is quiet. It’s tense. I compare this to the first day of our class. They don’t know me. I don’t know them. No one knows how this is going to go. “Tiny Dancer” starts playing on the bus and all it takes is one person to start singing it. I compared this person to the leaders in the classroom, the people who volunteer and do their speeches on the very first day, how it’s these people that blaze the trail for everyone else. Because of them, more people start singing. More people feel comfortable and start doing speeches or participate.

It gets to the point where the whole bus is singing “Tiny Dancer.” No one cares about the past or the future at that point. Everyone is just in the moment and living in the present. Even Russell, who was embarrassed, feels forgiven and starts belting it out with everyone. I told my classes that we have this when everyone is participating, learning and having fun at the same time.

While singing William turns to Penny Lane and says, “I have to go home.” Penny Lane looks at him and does some magic spell motion and says, “You are home.”

“For this whole semester, this class has been your home and I’m going to miss you guys when it’s over,” I said.

I finish the speech with, “The semester is over. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and I hope to see you again in the fall. Good evening.”

Every class erupted in applause, the first time I’ve gotten that kind of response and I always do speeches to model the assignment. I then show that classic scene and ask that there be no smart comments, to just watch and bask in one of the last moments of this great class.

I had no idea if this was going to work or not. That’s the thing. It’s hard to figure out teenagers and what they are
going to find interesting or engaging. What I’ve found is if I show passion for something, they go with it. I shared my passion for “Almost Famous”, set up the scene and how it relates to us and we watched the clip. They loved it. It just confirmed what I felt when I watched “Almost Famous” this weekend. We all are home in Speech/Communication Applications class.

In fact, nothing sums it up better than at the end of the final, a student turned her test in and under her real name, she wrote “Penny Lane.”